This invention relates to infant incubators, and more particularly, to a means of setting and adjusting the tilt angle of an infant bed located within an infant incubator.
Infant incubators have a variety of ways of adjusting the angle of tilt of infant beds within the apparatus. It is preferable that the tilting mechanism be operable from external of the infant incubator so that the attending personnel do not have to open any doors or portholes to carry out the process of adjusting the tilt angle.
Further, it is advantageous that the tilt angle be moveable continuously or infinitely variable over a wide latitude of positions, both to raise and lower the infant head or feet and not be constrained to two or three preset conditions.
As a further feature, the tilt mechanism should be self sustaining, that is, once the level has been selected, it is preferable that the user merely release the control and have the selected position automatically stabilize at that position.
Too, the change in tilt angle must be relatively smooth and easy to operate without any abrupt movements so that the infant is not disturbed and is not startled in changing the tilt angle.
A current tilt mechanism is exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,945 where a pair of selector handles rotate a pair of bent rods that raise and lower the infant position. As indicated, however, the position to be selected is limited to only a few selected positions and the operator cannot place the infant at any position intermediate the set positions made available by the manufacturer.
Another type of infant tilt mechanism is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,918 wherein a scissors type of arrangement is utilized to change the tilt angle of the infant. While the scissors type does achieve a variety of positions that the operator can select for the infant, it does not allow for large, easy to actuate, handles for the user since the rotation of the actuators for the scissors extend directly out the front of the incubator. Thus, the knobs grasped by the user must be quite small so as to not impede the opening of the front door and the tilting is not convenient for the user.
A further difficulty with the scissors mechanism of the aforementioned U.S. Patent reside in the mechanism having relatively fine threads located within the infant compartment to operate the scissors. Not only to the fine threads require considerable rotations of the handle (18-20) to move the infant bed from one extreme position to the other, but the mechanism and the fine threads are subject to frequent contamination and are extremely difficult to clean. Thus the mechanism must be cleaned frequently and that cleaning is burdensome and inconvenient to the medical personnel.